


No Snowmen on Tatooine

by HiNerdsItsCat (HiLarpItsCat)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Anakin Crashes Yet Another Ship, Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Cold Weather, Did I Seriously Manage To Write Something That Wasn't An Alternate Universe OMG, Everyone Needs A Hug, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hoth, Huddling For Warmth, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Movie: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Padawan Anakin Skywalker, Post-Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Wookiees Give Great Hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-21 05:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17636762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiLarpItsCat/pseuds/HiNerdsItsCat
Summary: Luke Skywalker spent his entire childhood on a desert planet. He might be a hero of the Rebellion and strong in the Force, but he isn’t handling the freezing temperatures on Hoth wellat all.Thirty years earlier, Anakin Skywalker is in the exact same location… and having the exact same problem.





	No Snowmen on Tatooine

**Author's Note:**

> In honor of the polar vortex, which hit my city so hard this week that they had to _set the train tracks on fire_ in order to keep them running, I decided to write a little story about the Skywalker family trying to cope with the cold on Hoth. Emphasis on _trying._

####  **3 Years After the Battle of Yavin:**

Luke Skywalker suddenly understood the horrified reactions that offworlders had to the heat on Tatooine. Though, in his case, the horrified reaction was in reverse: he had been miserable since the moment he arrived on Hoth.

He knew that the Rebellion didn’t have many options when it came to selecting locations for its bases; places with comfortable climates were almost always inhabited by _someone_ , whereas places in hostile environments would be easily overlooked by the Empire.

Still. At least Yavin hadn’t tried to kill him whenever he stepped outside.

“How can anywhere be _this cold?”_ he muttered out loud to no one in particular.

The others seemed less affected by the temperature, possibly because they had seen more of the galaxy than Luke had, even in the three years since he joined the Rebellion. He spent his entire childhood on a desert planet and, even in places that were climate-controlled, he still felt a little chilly all the time.

This was _so much_ worse.

“You’ll get used to it, I promise,” Leia said, apparently close enough to have heard Luke’s complaint. “You’ve adjusted to much stranger things.”

It was true. Over the course of only a few days, he had learned that his father was a Jedi and that Luke had inherited his ability to use… whatever the Force was. On top of that, he had lost his aunt and uncle (something that still made his heart ache), been part of a desperate escape from Imperial custody, and finally achieved his dream of becoming a starfighter pilot.

He had also fired the shot that killed over two million people.

Luke didn’t want to think about that part.

Instead, he thought about Leia: about how meeting her had changed his life more than anyone else (except maybe Ben Kenobi, but Luke had only met him because of Leia’s message), about that sudden rush of… was it recognition? connection? when he first saw her (the feeling of _haven’t I seen you somewhere before?_ The feeling of finally meeting someone who spoke his language fluently. The feeling of _I’ve known you my whole life even though I didn’t even know your name before today)_ , about how he still had no idea what any of the emotions he was feeling meant.

He also thought about how cold it was, because he really couldn't think about anything else at the moment. “I don’t understand how you could be warm in only those layers,” he said to her. In contrast to Luke, who was bundled up in every scrap of clothing he could scrounge from the Rebellion’s meager supplies, Leia seemed perfectly comfortable in a jacket and vest.

“Well, it’s not warm _exactly,”_ she admitted, “but it’s bearable. My family has— _had,”_ she corrected herself quietly, with a look of pain on her face that made Luke itch for a way to do something to help. She took a deep breath before continuing. “We had a vacation home up in the mountains, and it snowed there almost year-round. So I’ve had some experience with it.”

Luke couldn’t help looking skeptical. “You went to a place where it snowed constantly… for vacation?”

“Sure,” Leia said, as though it was the most normal thing in the galaxy. “There were ski trails and snowspeeders… when I was little I would build snowmen.”

Luke did his best to not visibly shiver. He failed.

“Here’s my advice,” Leia said, looking sympathetic; Luke knew that she often did that when something reminded her of Alderaan and she wanted to change the subject. “Keep moving. Go for a walk around the base—or a run, if you’re really cold. It’ll warm you up.”

Luke nodded. Given how cold he felt, though, he would probably have to match the speed of a podracer in order to get to that point.

* * *

####  **15 Days Later:**

Darth Vader was growing impatient.

Bad things tended to happen when he was impatient.

Those bad things usually happened to other people, of course, but it wasn’t as though he _enjoyed_ having to strangle his subordinates. No, that wasn’t entirely true: he did enjoy the actual strangling part, but he didn’t enjoy the failures that led to it.

Too many people had failed him in his lifetime.

This was one of the reasons why he was here on the _Executor,_  leading the search for Luke Skywalker: because too many people had failed at this task already and Vader could only trust himself to do it properly.

It was also why he was impatient. Ever since the moment Vader learned that he had a son (something that still made his heart hammer in his chest), he had been consumed by a single goal: find Luke and… and…

And _explain_ things.

Luke must have heard so many lies by now: from the Rebels, from Obi-Wan, from whoever it was that raised him on Tatooine (certainly not Obi-Wan… the man practically ran at the sight of younglings back when—but no, Vader refused to think about those days). Luke was going to need someone to tell him the truth: the Rebellion was weak, the Dark Side would make him powerful, and it was his destiny to overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy with his father.

When Captain Piett came with information about a probe droid that may have located the Rebel base, Vader overrode Admiral Ozzel’s objections and demanded to see the visuals the droid had collected.

He saw speeders racing across a landscape devoid of anything but snow and ice.

Vader looked at the coordinates and came very close to audibly groaning. Of course it would be _that_ planet.

“Set your course for the Hoth system,” he ordered the admiral, and fought the urge to shatter the console screen.

He (no, not him, the Jedi) had been there once before.

Once was more than enough.

* * *

####  **30 Years Earlier:**

Anakin Skywalker slumped against the wall of the cave and tried not to visibly shiver.

He failed. “How can anywhere be _this cold?”_ he grumbled, aware that it was really closer to being a whine.

“We wouldn't be here at all if you hadn't tampered with the ship,” Obi-Wan said testily.

Anakin crossed his arms and sulked. “How was I supposed to know that the proximity sensors were also used by the ship’s navigation computer?”

“Because it’s one of the _basics of astrogation!”_ Obi-Wan snapped. “Those sensors are what prevents the ship from crossing into mass shadows when calculating hyperspace vectors. We could have crashed into the planet itself! What were you _thinking?”_

Anakin continued to sulk. What he had been thinking was that the ship kept switching to autopilot whenever it got too close to objects that Anakin could easily navigate around without having to keep such a wide berth. The obvious solution was to alter the proximity sensors to shrink the distance that would trigger an alert.

But apparently it had thrown off the navicomputer enough that what should have been a simple jump from Eriadu to Takodana ended prematurely as their ship passed too close to this horrible frozen nightmare of a planet and was yanked out of hyperspace. The abrupt reversion to realspace was so violent, in fact, that it shorted out half of the systems and sent them into a spiral down to the surface, at which point the other half of the ship’s systems shorted out as a result of the crash.

Then the ship caught on fire, which was why Anakin and Obi-Wan had taken shelter in a cave that was literally _made out of ice_ while they waited for someone to pick up their distress signal.

Anakin had never been so cold in his life. Granted, he had lived on Tatooine until he was nine, but the last five years had been spent with the Jedi Order, mostly on Coruscant, and he really thought that he would have acclimated by now.

“That’s seven ships that you’ve crashed now, you know,” Obi-Wan pointed out.

Anakin rolled his eyes. “Are you counting the swoop bikes?”

“No,” Obi-Wan said wearily. “That would push your count into double digits. You would think that surviving crashes would make you _less_ reckless, not more.”

“Well, I’m obviously being punished for it now, aren’t I?” he demanded. “Are there any Force techniques that can warm me up, O Wise Master?” Sometimes, being sarcastic was the only way he could cheer himself up.

Obi-Wan glared at him. “Yes, there are a few, but you need to be at peace in order to do them.”

“Of course I do,” Anakin groaned. “Why aren’t there techniques that only work when you’re cold and miserable?”

“There _are,_  I expect, but they would be drawing on the Dark Side of the Force.”

“Right, right,” Anakin replied hastily. “I know. I’m just… I’m freezing and I can’t concentrate.”

“You aren’t the only one,” Obi-Wan admitted. “I expect it’s only a few degrees warmer in here than it is outside.”

“And I don’t see a lot of things we could build a fire with,” Anakin said. “Other than the ship.”

“I think the ship is more toxic fumes now than anything else,” Obi-Wan sighed again. “I suppose we’ll have to work with what we have.” He moved so that he was sitting right next to Anakin, and lifted up the arm that was now between them.

“What are you doing?” Anakin asked.

“I am attempting,” Obi-Wan said crossly, “to _huddle."_

“To what?”

“To huddle together for _warmth."_   Irritated, he put his raised arm behind Anakin’s shoulders.

“Oh,” Anakin said, and shifted his weight so that he could lean on Obi-Wan a little.

He was feeling warmer already.

Some of it was embarrassment, though. “I’m sorry for screwing up the ship,” he said.

“Yes, well, I know it wasn’t intentional,” Obi-Wan said, his voice letting go of the irritation it had been carrying since the moment they crashed. “We’ll have to brush up on your astrogation skills when we return to the Temple, of course.”

“Of course,” Anakin said. He leaned in a little more and rested his head on Obi-Wan’s shoulder. He felt like a youngling but, at the moment, he didn’t really care.

* * *

####  **30 Years Later:**

Admiral Ozzel came out of hyperspace too close to the system. The irony of that error was not lost on Vader, considering how he (not him, the Jedi) arrived here the last time.

Ozzel paid for this mistake with his life, of course, but it still gave the Rebels time to mount a defense and then escape.

Including Luke.

That was what drove Vader’s fury as he strode through the remains of the Rebel base: he had been so close to finding his son, so close to revealing the boy’s true heritage and offering him a place at Vader’s side.

He could sense traces of Luke here through the Force, as though his presence had seeped into the walls. Luke had been here, in these twisting caves that Vader was desperately trying to forget that he recognized.

There was one particular spot that seemed stronger in the Force than the others.

His son had sat here, days ago at the most.

The Jedi had sat here too, a long time ago.

Vader’s suit was temperature controlled, but he felt a chill all the same.

_How can anywhere be this cold?_

His son had grown up in the desert as well. He must have been miserable here in this frozen place.

Vader clenched his fists at his side. This was not the time to get sentimental.

He had the full might of the Imperial Navy at his command. He would tear the galaxy apart until he found Luke and then everything would be perfect. Only then would he allow himself the luxury of… of _connecting_ with his son: discovering all the similarities in their experiences, making plans for the future, and correcting all of the lies that Obi-Wan had surely told him.

But until then, he had a job to do.

* * *

####  **15 Days Earlier:**

Luke knew that he should really be saving his energy to help out around the base. He was a commander and he had a job to do… but he had also gotten lost.

Some of the caves here already existed before the Rebellion converted it into a base, which meant that he might very well have wandered into an area without a clear exit. This far inside, he was surprised there was still air.

He was exhausted. Despite the cold, he really needed to sit down and rest for a second. The spot he chose was no better or worse than anywhere else, but something about it seemed… inviting. Familiar, somehow.

When he lowered himself to the ground, he even felt a little warmer.

For a moment, he worried that it might be hypothermia instead, but he could still feel his fingers and toes, which was probably a good sign.

He tried to relax and clear his mind. He tried to stretch out with his feelings like Ben had taught him.

_How can anywhere be this cold?_

Was that a memory of his earlier words? Or an echo through the Force?

_How can_ _anywhere_ _be this cold?_

The voice he heard didn't sound like his own.

It sounded familiar, though…

Before he could puzzle it out, he heard another sound: the querying roar of an approaching Wookiee.

“Chewbacca?” Luke called. He heard another roar. Luke cursed inwardly that his comprehension of Shyriiwook was still atrocious, even after all these years. Without Han around to translate, this might be a little awkward.

Standing over Luke, who was still on the ground, Chewie looked even taller than his already-towering height. He looked around at the twisting tunnels and gave Luke another querying bark.

“I got lost,” Luke admitted. “I was only going to rest for another few minutes, though.”

Chewie grunted with a response that was only half-disapproving; Luke was pretty sure he had just been scolded. Then the Wookiee sat down, leaning back onto the icy wall beside Luke.

“Cold?” Chewie asked.

Luke at least knew that word. _“Really_ cold,” he said. “I guess you're lucky to have fur to keep you warm, huh?”

Chewbacca nodded and wrapped an arm around Luke's shoulders, pulling him into a kind of side hug.

Luke's assumption about the fur turned out to be correct.

“Everybody else seems to be coping with the temperature just fine,” he said after a few minutes of sitting silently together. “I feel like I'm whining about it all the time and annoying everyone around me. It seemed easier to wander off by myself instead of bothering anyone, I guess.”

Chewie rumbled to himself thoughtfully, then spoke in Shyriiwook that was over-enunciated enough for Luke to understand:

“You are not alone.”

“Oh, good, you found him,” Han said to Chewie as he came into view. He grinned at Luke. “Nothing like a good Wookiee hug, am I right?”

Chewbacca made a sound that Luke was pretty sure was laughter, and ruffled Luke’s hair affectionately.

“We figured you’d be having a rough time here,” Han said. “It’s a far cry from Tatooine, that’s for sure.”

“How do you manage it?” Luke asked as he wiggled out from under Chewie’s arm and stood up.

Han snorted. “Like I said, nothing like a good Wookiee hug. He’s also a fantastic ‘big spoon.’”

“He’s what?” Luke asked, confused, but was only answered by Chewbacca laughing again.

“I don’t know how you got this far into the caves,” Han said as the three of them headed back towards the center of the base. “It’s like a maze.”

Chewbacca draped an arm over each of their shoulders. “We’re going to have to turn sideways to get through doors, you know,” Han pointed out.

The Wookiee roared something that sounded slightly sarcastic to Luke’s ears. “Yeah, laugh it up, fuzzball,” Han said, smiling in spite of himself. “My first patrol outside, you’re coming with me.”

Luke’s stomach dropped at the realization that he was going to have to go outside on patrol eventually too.

“You don’t happen to have an extra shirt or two, do you?” he asked anxiously.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] No Snowmen on Tatooine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18642292) by [Chimeraspeak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chimeraspeak/pseuds/Chimeraspeak), [Magic_Enough](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magic_Enough/pseuds/Magic_Enough), [Nrandom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nrandom/pseuds/Nrandom)




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